2010 favorites

The food I prepare echoes the events in my life. Last winter, after moving from Philadelphia to New Mexico, we got our first house with a yard – and soon after, our first grill. In May, I started my first full time job and became limited to quicker meals on weekdays. During the fall, I taught in the evenings after working at my day job, and – well, we ate a lot of leftovers for a few months. Now that things are settling down and I should have some more free time, I’m itching to get started on 2011’s list of favorites. But first, I want to make each of last year’s favorites a few more times…

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese – This has all of the creaminess and richness that I love in traditional regular macaroni cheese, with the added sweetness, color, and wholesomeness of winter squash.

Mediterranean Pepper Salad – I went through a gyro phase last summer, and this salad started out as the perfect side dish and morphed into the perfect topping. I’m impatient for the weather to warm up enough to grill so I can start another gyro phase.

Roll-Out Sugar Cookie comparison – It’s so rare when my comparisons have a clear result, and I love when it happens. But after spending the holidays at my mother-in-law’s and surviving almost entirely on her perfect sugar cookies, I think a rematch with her recipe is in order.

I love the recap for 2010, but my brain kind of stopped paying attention after you mentioned gyros in your pepper salad post. No matter what I looked at after that, the back of my brain kept chanting gyros.

The pepper salad sounds wonderful. Yes, I will try it. It sounds like it would be perfect with gyros.

I searched your site, but found no recipe for gyros. I find a link for homemade pita (I bake mine on my (preheated) cast iron griddle), but no gyros. I find lamb kebobs and tsatsiki, but no gyros.

I will say that I have a gyros recipe that I have relied on (and it is quite good), but would love it if you would share yours.

penandra – The lamb kebabs make great gyros, and I played around (mostly unsuccessfully) with grilling ground lamb, but my favorite type of gyro is an adaptation of Elly’s (from Elly Says Opa) chicken gyros.

As for pita, as long as I’m already grilling meat for the gyros, I love cooking it right on the grill.

Bridget: Thanks for your response. I love lamb kebobs and Elly’s chicken gyros are delicious! I have a good gyros shop near me, but there’s nothing like homemade gyros meat with homemade pita and tsatsiki — okay, heading to the grocery store NOW!